Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A19605
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The crib of ioy containing spirituall exercise, for Christmasse. S. Steuen. S. Iohn. Innocents. Circumcision. Epiphanie.; Crib of joy.
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1611
(1611)
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STC 6039.5; ESTC S120351
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14,693
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50
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THE CRIB OF IOY Containing Spirituall Exercise for Christmasse S. Steuen S. Iohn Innocents Circumcision Epiphanie Iohn 7.37 In the last and great day of the Feast Iesus stood vp and cried saying If any thirst let him come to me and drinke LONDON Printed for Christopher Purset dwelling neare Staple Inne in Holborne at the signe of Marie Magdalens Head 1611. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN God Iohn by his Diuine prouidence Bishop of London RIght Reuerend it is the custom of all sorts of writers to seeke a patrō for their books dedicatiō wherfore I the publisher herof being a poore mēber of your last flocke and the Author to me vnknowne haue emboldened my selfe to choose your Lordship knowing none more fit to be the Guardian of this Orphane vnder whose protection I render both it and my self the rather because the earnest desire of all those who euer read this little Treatise intituled The Crib of Ioy hath moued me to the publishing hereof Therefore right Reuerend if either the Worke it selfe may receiue passage through your Lordships good fauour or my duty towards you herein may be accepted crauing pardon for my presumption I end continuing my prayers for your long life with eternall happinesse Your Lordships most humbly to be commanded Christopher Purset CHRISTMAS DAY The three circumstances of person time and place may draw the lineaments of this dayes ioy 1 WE may reioyce that our Sauiour and Reconciler to God was manifested this day to be a person and no inferior creature That the Iewish sacrifice of beasts and birds or other oblations were not in them selues propitiatorie but in eye to a worthier Mediatour It had bene a disgrace to our reasonable soule the image of God to haue bene valued at so base a price An indignitie to God himselfe to haue had his anger against sinners alayed and his iustice satisfied with the killing of a calfe a thing vndecent in our conceit preposterous in nature Heb. 10.4 vnpossible that the bloud of Buls and Goates should take away the sinnes of the soule 2 VVe may much more reioice that it was not the person of anie man or Angell or new made creature but of God himselfe manifested in the flesh If Noah Ezck. 14.14 Daniel and Iob should stand vp before God and make intercession for vs God telleth vs they should onely saue their owne soules and yet not that neither without further mediation Noahs wine must needs be don away with bloud Iobs sinne with sacrifice and Daniels imperfection with mercie If a holy Angell should set his puritie betweene God and vs he might iustifie himselfe but his white robes of innocencie were too short to couer our nakednesse If anie creature should offer himselfe to death for vs we might thanke him for his good will but he had neither authoritie to lay downe his life for another nor power to take it vp againe for himselfe Our Mediatour is God and Man one Christ God that he might pacifie and satisfie by his worth the person offended for he is as good as he Man that he might suffer for the offendor for he is flesh and bloud of the same nature with vs. One Christ that he might vnite God and Man inseparably who were disioyned before by sinne for the same person who as Man loueth man being also God is infinitely beloued of God the same Christ an intercessour for man in his manhood cannot be denied of his Father for his Godhead sake Therefore so long as his humanitie sticketh fast to his diuinitie tyed with that inseparable knot of the vnitie of person which the point of the speare could not dissolue herein is our reioycing Rom. 8.38.39 That neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate vs from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. 3 VVe may most of all reioyce that of the diuine persons the second was this day incarnate for in him the loue of God is doubled vpon vs God the Father loued vs before he gaue his Sonne had he not loued vs he had neuer bestowed so precious a gift vpon vs but hauing now giuen his Sonne thereby to make vs sonnes he must needes loue vs one degree more in that we are his sonnes God the Sonne loued vs before he became man but being incarnate we may challenge a degree of loue more in that we are his brethren He loued vs before he gaue himselfe much more now we are his owne for he hath dearely bought vs. That precious ointment streaming from Aarons head that blessed Spirit which the Sonne our Sauiour of his fulnesse distilleth vpon vs loued vs in that he ouershadowed the Virgin for vs loued vs in that he infused faith into vs renewed our hearts reformed our wils sanctified our persons but shall hee not now loue his handie worke much more whereupon he hath bestowed such cost If God loued vs when we were strangers runnagates rebels and so loued vs as he then intended to adopt vs what will a fatherly affection moue him vnto If the Sonne loued vs when we were yet his enemies and so loued vs as he forsooke himselfe for vs is it not intended he will loue his friends and brethren heires and fellow-heires of the same kingdome If the holy Ghost loued vs and so loued vs as he tooke in hand such vntoward prices such hard hearts such waiward and crooked affections shal we doubt that dwelling in vs as in holy temples he will not keepe vs in reparations Thus the triple loue of the blessed Trinitie is multiplied vpon vs they all loue vs because they loued vs they loued vs that they might loue vs more they loue vs more in that the second person being the naturall Sonne hath made vs adopted sonnes in whom God is our Father and from whom the holy Spirit is deriued Reioyce then that he was a person and no inferiour creature a diuine person and no creature and againe I say reioyce in that the second person in Trinitie the eternall Sonne of God as vpon this day was borne of a pure virgin 2. Circumstance THat which is good rare and bringeth ioy with it must needs be acceptable vnto vs but yet more welcome if it come in an acceptable time 1 In good time was Christ borne when the Scepter was departed from Iuda Gen. 49.10 and a law-giuer from his feete VVhen Israel was subiect to the Romanes and the true Israelites made seruants vnto them that were slaues vnto sinne then was that little Stone cut out without hands Dan. 2.45 which dashed the kingdomes in peeces and became a mightie mountaine Then was the little Child of Bethlem incarnate of the virgin without a father borne without a midwife swadled without a nurse preferred without the help of man to an euerlasting kingdome to rule ouer vs for our spiritual
Elias and after crucified on mount Caluarie vers 38 betweene two theeues Hee heard the voice of his Father from heauen Mat. 3.17 This is my beloued Sonne in whom I am well pleased Hee heard the lamentable crie of the Sonne of God vpon the crosse My God my God Mat. 27.46 why hast thou forsaken me After this he both saw and heard those heauenly misteries in that I le of Patmos Reuel 14 9. which this of England doth now enioy those diuine Reuelations written by Iohn to the seuen Churches of Asia which are at this day extant in all the Churches of Europe 3 He hath left behind him three monuments of especiall note I meane not his three titles of Iohn the Euangelist the Apostle the Diuine but his three works his Gospel Epistles and Apocalypse The first beginneth from afore all worlds farre aboue Moses his beginning of the creation Ioh. 1.2 In the beginning was the Word c. The last describeth that heauenly Ierusalem Reul 21.10 which endureth past all ages The first is a narration of the Gospell of Christ the second an exhortation vnto the pietie of Saints the third a reuelation of the state of the Church The first teacheth faith the second charitie the third hope and patience sufficient to make a man perfect in Christ This Apostle our Church hath placed in this Feast of the Natiuitie to the end to teach vs who that Babe was which was borne at Bethlehem INNOCENTS MAruell not that children make vp this traine Esa 9.6 for vnto vs a Child is borne and such a one as euermore delighteth in little ones like his Father to whom was neuer sacrifice more acceptable of beasts then lambes of birds then yong pigeons This Lambe of God carrieth the same mind Suffer little children to come vnto me Mat 19.14 and forbid them not for to such belongs the kingdome of God And if the kingdome belong vnto them good reason they should belong vnto the King yet neither they nor the King shall enter into this kingdome without bloud Gen. 4.8 So I thought when God placed a sword at the gate of Paradise his meaning was Gen. 3.24 none should come there againe without losse of bloud Thus passed Habel the first in the old Testament by his brothers sword Mat. 2.16 and these Innocents the first in the new Testament vnder Herods sword and the rest Some going before some following and the King himselfe in the middest by whose sole vertue and authoritie it was that both to them before and vs following the gate of heauen was open else had there bene no passage at all Yet for all this the King telleth vs Mat. 7.14 The gate is straite and there be few that go in thereat therefore we must striue if we meane to enter The impediments which make the passage so difficult to vs be three in number all which the example of those Innocents teach vs to auoide or ouercome 1 First the sword of tribulation Act. 14.22 for by many tribulations must we enter into the kingdome of God Mat. 16.24 Therefore if any will be my disciple saith our Sauiour let him take vp his crosse as I haue done This let they ouercame by suffering and got more by Herod his sword then if they had bene maintained at his owne exhibition Let not this stop vs then for why should any child of God be lesse patient in suffering one death for an euerlasting kingdome then Herod was cruell inflicting many deaths for an earthly kingdome 2 If sinne lie at the doore Gen. 4.7 it will stop our passage as it did Cains whether it be some great notorious sin as his was like a rocke in the sea or like a sand many little ones heaped together either of them will dam vp the gate make the conscience to suffer shipwracke Therefore to preuent that these passengers were Innocents entring in this doore before they had clogged it with many sinnes whose example in this kind S. Paul commends vnto vs 1. Cor. 14.20 As concerning maliciousnes be ye children For children haue their faults yet commonly they proceed in them either of ignorance or infirmitie or both and so long God is mercifull vnto vs. But if maliciousnesse and presumptuous sinnes get a hand ouer vs they wil stop the gate of heauen and much ado shall we haue to passe for this cause straite is the gate and few there be that go in thereat 3 As we haue made the gate straite through our default so if we grow ouer-big so much the worse A threed may enter where a cammell cannot These Innocents were little in bodie and mind Mat. 2.16 two yeares old and vnder but the diuels disease is a swelling disease and so infectious at the first as our parents got it of him in Paradise since which time it is growne hereditarie to the sonnes of Adam This cast Nebuchadnezzar out of his earthly kingdome Dan. 4.28 and it must be asswaged in vs or we shall neuer enter the heauenly The Pharisy swelled in conceit of his owne righteousnesse Luke 16.14 and stucke fast the Publican stooped and went in Zacheus was great in riches Luke 19.8 he diminished himself by restitution by charitie to the poore and passed For this gate it seems is made for children onely to creepe through Verily I say vnto you Mat. 18.3 except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdome of God CIRCVMCISION THe moneth of Nisan when Israel should be sprinkled with the bloud of the Paschall Lambe was to be reckened the first moneth of the yeare Exod. 12.2 that by so good a beginning the rest of the yeare might the better be hallowed It is not then amisse to beginne a new reuolution with the remembrance of those drops of bloud wherewith all the world was besprinkled and no doubt sanctified at the circumcision of the Lambe of God They were but a few drops I confesse not the whole price of our redemption yet sufficient though for an earnest penie the entire Sonne was after tendred vpon the Crosse at his passion Yet because onely the bloud of Christ and no other was a sufficient ransome for the world it was therefore very behouefull that before he paied the ransome he should approue himselfe to be the very true Messias and Redeemer and this was performed at his Circumcision For saith the text when eight dayes were accomplished that they should circumcise the child his name was called Iesus He was circumcised to approue himselfe truly man flesh of our flesh and his name was called Iesus which signifieth God our Sauiour Circumcised that the Iewes might acknowledge him to be the Sonne of Abraham called Iesus that he might be receiued for the Sonne of God Circumcised to become subiect to the law Gal. 5.3 for he that is circumcised saith S. Paul is bound to keepe the law Called Iesus